Alexander Rossi was not like most children who grew up in Nevada City, Calif. Most children in the town of 3,000 near Lake Tahoe did not wake up at 4 a.m. on Sunday mornings to watch Formula One automobile races on television. But Rossi did, religiously.

Rossi’s love of the series took him overseas seven years ago to pursue a driving career, and he has not ruled out going that route again someday. But his immediate plans changed substantially after 3 p.m. Sunday, when Rossi, 24, won the Indianapolis 500 on his first try.

After becoming only the second American driver since 2006 to win at the Brickyard, Rossi has climbed to sixth place in the IndyCar standings, with a weekend doubleheader of races on tap at Belle Isle Park in Detroit on a road course, his first love.

A driver who thought he wanted to race internationally — and who, until Sunday, many people thought was from Europe — has become a standard-bearer for American drivers.

“I didn’t know what was around the corner from Victory Lane when I got into the winner’s circle,” he said Tuesday as a limousine whisked him to the Empire State Building for a photo with the Borg-Warner Trophy, which he won Sunday. “It was pretty eye-opening, and it opened me up to a whole barrage of neat experiences I had never known before.”

He smiled, adding: “At the same time, it’s very difficult to be doing all of this when half of your mind is on Detroit. You have a job to do, and it is to carry the momentum forward.”

To all but Formula One fans, Rossi was practically unknown until he won Sunday’s race. Until this year, Rossi had been on a fast track for the series, and, as a result, he said, “A lot of people don’t realize I’m from America, from California, which is a little bit annoying.”

Rossi drove in five Formula One races last year for the Manor Marussia team but was passed over for a full-time ride this year. He sought a place to compete every week, and Michael Andretti, the IndyCar driver turned team owner, knew Rossi’s background.

Andretti, whose father, Mario, won an F1 drivers championship in 1978, had encountered disappointment in the series, too. Michael Andretti moved from IndyCars to Formula One in 1993, but he crashed a lot, ran poorly and was out of the series in less than a year.

Rossi was only the third American to have raced in Formula One since 1990; Andretti and Scott Speed, 33, who now races on the Global Rallycross series, were the others.

“As an American in F1, we stood out together,” Rossi said of Michael Andretti. “There was an association with that. He had the exact same thing happen, so he and I can relate on a lot of different levels, which is pretty cool to have in common with your boss.”

A race team owned by Bryan Herta, a former driver who won the 2011 Indy 500 with Dan Wheldon, had been merged into the team owned by Andretti Autosport. Michael Andretti had a seat, and he thought Rossi could handle a new challenge.

As a youngster, Rossi attended races on the road course at Laguna Seca, Calif., and after watching those and Formula One races on TV, he thought he would like conquering tracks with twists and turns. He was not familiar with oval tracks, like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He finished 12th in the first IndyCar race of the season, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Fla., on March 13.

“The next race was at Phoenix, my first oval, which I had a lot of apprehension about,” he said.

He qualified and finished 14th, and he was surprised with how much he loved the ovals.

He finished 20th — next to last — on the street course in Long Beach, Calif., and finished 15th among 21 drivers at the road course in Birmingham, Ala., before rebounding to finish 10th at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Rossi started 11th in the 33-car Indianapolis 500 field on Sunday and was in first place by the 122nd of 200 laps. He lost the lead but recaptured it seven laps later. His team gambled that it could finish the final laps of the race without refueling, and Rossi roared into the lead and coasted to victory.

It was the first time a rookie had won the race since Helio Castroneves did so in 2001, and the first time an American-born rookie won the Indy 500 since Louis Meyer did it in 1928.

“I’ve never understood it, but there’s always been this question mark among motor sports fanatics that American drivers are not on the same level,” Rossi said. “To be able to show that, in the biggest 500 we’ve had, is pretty spectacular. I’m fully prepared to carry this sport into its next stages.”

Rossi, who received a winner’s purse of $2.55 million on Monday, expects to compete in the 10 remaining races.

“This has put me in championship contention, which I wasn’t three days ago, which has really changed my perspective on 2016,” he said. “If Detroit goes how we think it can go, then we can put up a fight for at least the top three in the championship.”

He has no idea where the journey will take him. “I’m not complaining about the way it’s worked out at all,’’ he said. “Sometimes, you go into negative situations, and you come out of them in a very positive situation.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: Indy 500 Winner Looks Beyond Victory Lane. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe